Almost Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

for his mother’s death? He seemed to have wanted to see his dad only moments ago. What was going on here?
    “I don’t know what three times five is,” the boy spat out. “But I do know when someone is stupider than I am! I hate you forever and ever. You always cause trouble when you come home.” He glared at his father, spun around, and ran up the stairs.   
    “Jeremy!” Hannah’s reprimand fell on deaf ears.
    I hate you.
    The ugly words hung in the air like a choking fog. She had thought the same words at her husband’s funeral and regretted them instantly. She stole a glance at Tanner’s face and would have missed the flicker of pain in his eyes if she hadn’t happened to turn his way. It was a pain that looked as if he’d lost his son forever.
    Forever.
    The misery of the past suddenly came flooding back. Nick. She had fallen in love with the wrong man, and he had broken her heart.
    “Jeremy, get down here. Now!” Tanner’s face became a block of ice.
    “He missed you, you know,” she said softly, her throat tightening as Jeremy slammed his door upstairs.
    She had seen the light in Jeremy’s eyes when he would mention his father. She knew the boy loved the man to distraction. “I know he doesn’t show it, but I really think he was looking forward to your homecoming. I think part of his anger is because you left him for so long. A few weeks is a lot of time to a little boy.”
    Tanner shot her a penetrating look. Without speaking, he bent down, picked up the dinosaur Jeremy had thrown at his feet, stared pointedly at her toes, then looked up.
    Hannah found his nearness more disturbing than the night they’d met. It seemed as if he wanted to tell her something, but before she could speak, he turned an accusing glance toward his father. “I’ll deal with Jeremy later, but right now I’d like a word with you...Dad.” 
    He shifted his gaze to her, then back to Fritz. “Alone.”
    That one word said it all. Alone. She was going to be fired.
     
    “What do you mean you hired that...that red-toed whatever, right under my nose?” 
    Tanner’s arm shot over his father’s white-silvery head toward the closed doors of the study. He needed a tutor for Jeremy, but it was not going to be Hannah. Not the woman he couldn’t forget the past month since that night on the mountain. Not the woman whose emerald eyes flashed with a vulnerability and gentleness that made him act on impulse, making him behave like a crazy fool.
    He should have recognized her car parked in the street the minute he pulled up the driveway, but he was too excited to see his son and wasn’t thinking. He noticed the old car a minute ago though.
    Hannah Elliot was a dangerous woman. What the hell had he been thinking?
    When his father didn’t answer, Tanner paced in front of his desk, frustrated at the way the older man could turn his life upside down in less than an hour.
    Tanner scowled, distinctly recalling Hannah Elliot’s slim body as she tried to keep her toes from touching the floor. Even acting like a duck, she had a cat-like grace that attracted him. He had been instantly reminded of the night he’d found her alone on that mountain. She had been prey for any crazy man coming along in the middle of the night, and that had scared the heck out of him.
    Her innocent gaze had made him want to take care of her. And what was that about?
    “Come on, Dad, the last tutor you hired, you wanted me to marry. In fact, every female tutor you hired has been interested in my money.” 
    The moment Tanner mentioned the word marry, Fritz lowered his eyes, unleashing a crooked smile that spilled across his face.
    “Fine, I admit it,” Fritz said. “That last gal was a mistake. Moonlight Pinkly wasn’t the right one. This one is.”
    Tanner rolled his eyes. “Forget the others, what about this one? Did she get past nail polish school?”
    Tanner rubbed a hand across his face in frustration. He was exhausted. He’d made three trips this